# Explicit Discovery of Nonlinear Symmetries from Dynamic Data

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.01855 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.01855/

## Key facts

- Cited by 6 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 46 of its 70 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 2 Oct 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 46)

- [Fourier Neural Operator for Parametric Partial Differential Equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.08895/) (2020)
- [Group Equivariant Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1602.07576/) (2016)
- [E(n) Equivariant Graph Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.09844/) (2021)
- [General E(2)-Equivariant Steerable CNNs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.08251/) (2019)
- [3D Steerable CNNs: Learning Rotationally Equivariant Features in Volumetric Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.02547/) (2018)
- [Steerable CNNs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.08498/) (2016)
- [On the Generalization of Equivariance and Convolution in Neural Networks to the Action of Compact Groups](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.03690/) (2018)
- [Harmonic Networks: Deep Translation and Rotation Equivariance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.04642/) (2016)
- [Learning SO(3) Equivariant Representations with Spherical CNNs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.06721/) (2017)
- [Generalizing Convolutional Neural Networks for Equivariance to Lie Groups on Arbitrary Continuous Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.12880/) (2020)
- [Learning Steerable Filters for Rotation Equivariant CNNs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.07289/) (2017)
- [A Practical Method for Constructing Equivariant Multilayer Perceptrons for Arbitrary Matrix Groups](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.09459/) (2021)
- [Adan: Adaptive Nesterov Momentum Algorithm for Faster Optimizing Deep Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.06677/) (2022)
- [Incorporating Symmetry into Deep Dynamics Models for Improved Generalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.03061/) (2020)
- [Deep Scale-spaces: Equivariance Over Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.11697/) (2019)
- [Approximately Equivariant Networks for Imperfectly Symmetric Dynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.11969/) (2022)
- [Roto-Translation Covariant Convolutional Networks for Medical Image Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.03393/) (2018)
- [Automatic Symmetry Discovery with Lie Algebra Convolutional Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.07103/) (2021)
- [Lie Point Symmetry Data Augmentation for Neural PDE Solvers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.07643/) (2022)
- [Meta-Learning Symmetries by Reparameterization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.02933/) (2020)
- [Attentive Group Equivariant Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.03830/) (2020)
- [Equivariant Q Learning in Spatial Action Spaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.15443/) (2021)
- [CubeNet: Equivariance to 3D Rotation and Translation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.04458/) (2018)
- [Spin-Weighted Spherical CNNs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.10731/) (2020)
- [Equivariant Multi-View Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.00993/) (2019)
- [Learning Partial Equivariances from Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.10211/) (2021)
- [Generative Adversarial Symmetry Discovery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.00236/) (2023)
- [Dense Steerable Filter CNNs for Exploiting Rotational Symmetry in Histology Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.03037/) (2020)
- [Latent Space Symmetry Discovery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.00105/) (2023)
- [Lie Point Symmetry and Physics Informed Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.04293/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 6 of 6)

- [Adaptive Symmetry Discovery for Dynamical System Identification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.08091/) (2026)
- [Efficient Learning and Symmetry Discovery under Exact Invariances](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.07031/) (2026)
- [LieStoNet: Learning Lie Symmetries from Spatiotemporal Data for Stochastic Dynamical Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.01582/) (2026)
- [Discovering Symmetries in Neural Network Parameter Spaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.33527/) (2026)
- [LieDiscover: Adaptive Symbolic Library Construction for Explicit Open-form Symmetry Discovery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.33663/) (2026)
- [Learning Operators for Symmetry Discovery: From Lie Groups to Local Symmetry Geometry](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.16884/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Symmetry is widely applied in problems such as the design of equivariant networks and the discovery of governing equations, but in complex scenarios, it is not known in advance. Most previous symmetry discovery methods are limited to linear symmetries, and recent attempts to discover nonlinear symmetries fail to explicitly get the Lie algebra subspace. In this paper, we propose LieNLSD, which is, to our knowledge, the first method capable of determining the number of infinitesimal generators with nonlinear terms and their explicit expressions. We specify a function library for the infinitesimal group action and aim to solve for its coefficient matrix, proving that its prolongation formula for differential equations, which governs dynamic data, is also linear with respect to the coefficient matrix. By substituting the central differences of the data and the Jacobian matrix of the trained neural network into the infinitesimal criterion, we get a system of linear equations for the coefficient matrix, which can then be solved using SVD. On top quark tagging and a series of dynamic systems, LieNLSD shows qualitative advantages over existing methods and improves the long rollout accuracy of neural PDE solvers by over 20% while applying to guide data augmentation. Code and data are available at https://github.com/hulx2002/LieNLSD.